The book for sale.

Okay, people, I'm finally ready to deal out the book...
It's pretty simple: you should send payment via Paypal to the following address: pedrodonald AT hotmail.com (I'm writing it this way to avoid robotware to link it).
But you should send me your address to the following email: pedrovmoura AT gmail.com
The books will cost 25 USD for the Americas and 18 Euros within Europe (postage included). For the rest of the world or more than one copy, please inquire.
I am sorry there's no professional site or whatever, but this is the beginning, or so I hope...
Thanks!

There was an unfortunate editing error that inverted the order of Andrei Molotiu's "Pym" piece. Here's the errata you can print. There is also a pdf file available, which you can request via email. My humblest apologies to Molotiu, whose work suffered this terrible blunder. I hope you can all understand.

Lemos's secret present

I should have uploaded this earlier, but here's a great drawing André left on our dry-erase board in our kitchen. We didn't find it until they were gone a few days - Violet found it and freaked out she was so happy! Nice nails/tentacles in the head!

Workshops

The other things I did for SSG in conjunction with the show were 2 workshops, both on making minicomics and zines. The first one was at the gallery and only had 2 paying participants, though the SSG folks made some books too - Andrew's was pretty funny. The other workshop was just last week at Western Albemarle High School with 2 different art classes. There were a lot of kids and they seemed to really like making little books. Prom (a big formal dance, like a ball) was the next day so some of the kids drew books about that. It was good and I had fun (Thanks Nancy).

For both classes I started them with drawing a little fold up book about a guy sleeping - I told them what to draw where, we xeroxed the pages and then folded and stapled them. Even though they knew the little, very simple story I had the draw there was still that great moment when they first read throguh the book they had made.

Then I talked all about minis and zines and showed a bunch of examples, then had them do another fold up book - a one-sided folded thing that made a 4-page book. Finally I gave them all a bunch of links to minicomics and zine resources.

One thing I really emphasized was how zines were like blogs, but better in some ways. I stessed how people LOVE getting little books even if they don't usually look at art and I really pushed the idea that this is a great way to get one's work out into the world. Hopefully there will be a flurry of weird little books out at the high school...

Talks

So we're in the last week of the show and I'm a bit sad about it. I'm lucky that I get to go by and see the show often and I'll miss being able to wander around in it...

There's a lot that has been going on and I want to make sure I get it all in the blog before Saturday when the show closes. The first thing is all the talks I've done in the space.

Preview and Opening nights Pedro and I talked a bit (André was too cool to talk!) and I did another little talk at the First Friday for April when SSG had another small reception. Surprisingly there were a number of folks there (Thanks Rob and John), probably because of all the press we got that week - 2 revies and my article with the little book (Thanks Brendan, Laura and Erika). At this talk I mostly said the same things we did at the first talks about how the show happened, why these artists are in the show and how we see this work in the wider art and comics worlds. I tried my best to say things as well as Pedro who did such a great job when he was here.

I did another talk as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book, an annual book festival here in Charlottesville. When we originally pitched this show to SSG I thought it would be great to have it up during the Fesitval and since it all worked out they added us to their official events (Thanks VFB). We were scheduled for opening night when there were tons of events and we didn't get many folks, but it was good to see those who did come (Thanks Greg, Col. & Jenny and Prof. Pike). One visitor, in a completely random way, was someone I barely knew when I lived in St. Louis for a year. It was a LOST moment... Anyway, in this talk I assumed the audience knew little about comics, so I gave a long talk what comics are, a history of them, their place in US, European and Japanese cultures and gave examples of a lot of contemporary work. I then went through each artist in the show, talking about each and showing examples of thir printed work. I thought it went pretty well!

I did one other talk, this time about my own work. SSG does a series called "Artist Forums" where they have artists come in and discuss their work in the gallery. I did it a couple weeks ago, showing some big drawings, collages, books etc. Everyone who was there filled out postcards so they'll get drawings in the mail and I gave them all stickers and lil books. I talked a bit about the "dandelion strategy" of my seed toss mentality (see my blog for a little more on that) and passed around tons of old sketchbooks for folks to look at. One good question - "Why do you do this?" still vexes me (Thanks Andy). Another comment was that I was brave to allow people to rifle through my old sketchbooks. It was a good talk, but, again, sparsely attended (Thanks Martha and family).

I'm not sure why these talks were pretty empty other than there's a lot going on and it's hard to get the word out. There may have been some Warren-fatigue too, I know I was tired of me!

Later, more Warren/André jam drawings, more André art he left in my house and more more more, but next up, the workshops I did in conjunction with the show.

3 reviews, 1 video, 1 booklet

Here are three reviews, one for the show, and two for the money... I mean, for the glory of Warren's work. I have to say that there are a few minor mistakes (I, Pedro, am not the artist, André Lemos is, I'm just the suspicious looking character) and differences of attitude - I'm always insisting this is a show on COMICS, so stop using prettied-up words... Anyways, enjoy:

Erika Howsare's article for C-Ville.com: here.

Brendan Fitzgerald's article also for C-Ville.com: here. (watch the video at the end)

And Laura Parsons' article for The Hook: here.

And here's a direct link for the small cut-out, fold-up, rock-on book Warren did for the C-Ville paper, a variation on both his oeuvre and the show. ***

Threesome interview...

Now, don't get me wrong... the title is a little joke.
David Erklund, who runs his own video company in Charlottesville, Videography, made a small documentary/piece on the show. He promised he would get back at us as soon as he had the whole thing finished, which he did, and we thank him for it and his sympathy. He's cool. That's him filming away during the opening night!

So, you can check on youtube, here, the short statements each of us (Warren, André and I) gave. I look horrible, but at least you can also see Warren and André.

Enjoy.

Gallery talk

image by Ilan Manaouch

Thursday I'll be giving a Curator's talk at the gallery as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book:

Festival of the Book at Second Street Gallery

Please join us on Thursday, March 19, at 6:00 pm for a talk by Warren Craghead III, as part of this year's Virginia Festival of the Book.

Warren, who is the co-curator of Second Street's current Dové Gallery exhibition Impera et Divide, will be discussing examples of art-comics by artists working around the world.

This talk is FREE and open to the public, with artwork and books available for sale.

We hope to see you there!

Catherine Barber
Associate Director, Second Street Gallery

Visual log of the greatest trip ever

Wednesday 03.04.09

Two weeks ago Pedro Moura and André Lemos came to visit us here in Cville for the opening of the show. They stayed at our house and we had a great time, both working hard to get the show up and sitting around late at night drawing. They were the best guests and friends and Annie, Violet, Ginger and I still miss them.

So here's what might be an illegible log of what happened. That first image was of Wednesday where I worked with the gallery folks to hang the show all day, then drove up to Dulles to pick up the guys. We spent the 2-hour drive down talking and then passed out once we got home.


Thursday 03.05.09

Thursday we had both little girls with us as we went to the gallery to finalize everything. Pedro worked to organize the mountains of books and art we had there as André helped finishing the hanging. The preview opening that night was packed and we saw lots of folks. We ended up at a party at a board members house and then eventually at my house, drawing together on the kitchen table until late late late.


Friday 03.06.09

Friday we went back to the gallery for more organizing, went by the UVA Art Museum to see the Oliphant show, then hung out at my house until it was time for the opening. Again we went downtown and met more people - more artists at Friday's opening which was good (see the laurel leaves and strong sword arm of victory?). Afterwards we ended up going back home where the Portuguese boys cooked a tortilla and we ate and talked with Annie until late.


Saturday 03.07.09

Saturday André painted that crazy mural on The Bridge while Pedro hung out with mya family at the park and the gallery. Later he cooked fish for all of us and it was delicious. That night more talking then drawing until very late.


Sunday 03.08.09

Sunday we said goodbye to Cville and I drove the guys up to DC. We saw Obama's house and ended up at the Hirshhorn with Truly and Carol seeing the Bourgeois show, then a crappy comics show at the Native American Museum, then a great little Guston show at the National Gallery. I finally and sadly said "adeus" to the guys at Truly's house in Capitol Hill and drove home. They stayed there and flew out the next evening.


(I cross posted this over at my blog too.)

Blowing one's horn.

Or actually, one's friend. André Lemos left a present for Truly and Erin. Lovely, disturbing little critters!

Warren/André jams.

Ok, now that Warren has shown you the drawings he and André did together, the ones he kept, I'm showing you the ones André brought with him...
My participation in this jam was like those guys playing the drums or cracking the whips in galleys... Playing music (not always good), making sure they were in good spirits to work, swapping pages, etc. A little pleasure for a midget amongst giants.
We hope this'll make it as a book!